Tom Coughlin must have been so impressed with the upbeat message he delivered to the Giants yesterday that he rolled it out again a few hours later during his press conference, sounding almost evangelical at times in his zeal for Sunday’s must-have game in Carolina.

Sure, his Giants have lost four straight, forcing them to slog through wild card scraps. No doubt, it is open-season for ripping his decision-making on the field, behavior on the sidelines and control of his team. Speculation is rampant that his job security is dwindling. Yet, there was Coughlin, mugging for the cameras and actually exhorting the press corps to get pumped up for the stretch run.

Who was that guy posing as Tom Coughlin?

It started at 11 a.m., as he entered the room and immediately noticed that the lectern he stands behind was pushed closer to the wall than usual. Coughlin hopped up the step and playfully leaned back against the wall, arms spread out, as if he were on the wrong end of a firing line.

“That’s what we call having your back to the wall,” shouted Pat Hanlon, the team’s vice president of communications.

With that, Coughlin glanced around the room and didn’t like what he saw.

“Know what I think when I walked in here, it’s different from when I came in on Monday,” Coughlin said. “You have to get it up, guys. You have to get excited. It’s a new week here. You’re all sitting here with your heads down and I know you want to win just as bad as I want to win. You have to get it going. You have to get yourself fired up a little bit for a new week and a new opportunity.”

Was this the upbeat and uplifting face Coughlin showed his team?

“That’s exactly what I told the players,” he said.

So there it is. Coughlin is selling, and we have to wait until Sunday afternoon at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte to see how many of the Giants are buying in. The stakes are over the top for the Giants and Panthers – both laboring along with 6-6 records, both riding losing streaks (two straight for the Panthers) and wondering what the heck happened to seasons of supposed promise.

With four teams in the NFC locked in at 6-6 (Falcons and Eagles as well) there is no sense in downplaying this game. Disappointment has hounded these teams. The Giants have lost their last two games on last-second field goals. The Panthers on Monday in Philadelphia blew their NFL-high fifth game when leading in the fourth quarter when Jake Delhomme was intercepted in the end zone as the Panthers were in position for a short field goal to send the game into overtime.

“It’s been a frustrating year,” Panthers coach John Fox said, “because we have just been a little bit off.”

To make matters worse, Delhomme either sprained or tore a ligament in his right (throwing) thumb slamming it into a helmet. He could not practice yesterday and is listed as questionable.

The obvious theme of retribution for the Giants, based on last year’s devastating 23-0 NFC wild card playoff loss to the Panthers, was barely touched upon, as there’s only so much emotional overload a struggling team can take.

“I didn’t refer to it this morning,” said Coughlin, who did not discount using it later on in the week.

For now, that was too negative a thought for Tranquil Tom.

“Win one game and it changes a lot of things,” he said, voice rising. “You know, we have a whole quarter of the season left to go and it’s an exciting time. For anybody to say that it isn’t, despite the disappointments, is foolish. You only go around this thing one time.”